intraspective | Room 504, Thursday Early Evening

Biting his lip against a grin, A.J. ducked his head to also try to hide a little bit of a blush that was building up again. "Man, I should have just not said anything."

"Look on the bright side," Ino said, wrinkling her nose at him, "I'm letting you off lightly."

"I could leave, you know," A.J. countered. "I did show up, so you can't be that mad."

If anything, A.J. was thinking he could make a case that he should be mad at Ino. He had left a really, really good thing to come up here and just be badgered.

It wasn't her fault that he couldn't be bothered to schedule his really good things at times when he hadn't promised to be somewhere else.

"A.J.," Ino said patiently, "that was hardly mad. When I'm mad at you, believe me, you'll know."

"Oh, I know," A.J. said, holding back a chuckle as he gave Ino a look. "That's the main reason I ended up showing up after all."

That, that stung.

She pulled away from him and, grabbing on her hairbrushes turned her back to him. "So sorry about expecting people to keep their promises." Ino said, fighting to keep her composure, "Sorry for being irritated about not being important enough to remember ahead of time."

"Oh, come on!" A.J.'s outlook on the situation just drastically dropped from hopeful to disaster and he held out his arms as if waiting for a chance to just drop right in them. "I was just joking!"

Well, he's said it as a joke, even if it was mostly true.

"It wasn't funny." Ino said flatly, the hand holding her hairbrush shaking a bit, "If they only reason you bothered to show up is because you're scared of me being angry then you might as well go."

"It's not the only reason," A.J. countered, brooding slightly at the shaking hairbrush. "I'm not going to lie and say that it wasn't a reason at all. I said I'd be here, so here I am. I just forgot a little bit. Kabuto stands you up for a whole date, and you pout in a coffee shop. I slip up a bit, and it's like, oh-mi-god, end of the world or something."

"I also clocked him over the head and dug my nails into his skull," Ino said acidly, "and, you know what? Maybe I expected more of you because you hadn't let me down before."

And maybe she was more sensitive than normal thanks to being stood up Saturday.

"And I still haven't," A.J. pointed out with a very important lift of his chin.

"Right. Whatever." Ino said, not wanting to talk about it. "Let's work on hair then, shall we?"

Frowning a little bit at a response like that, A.J. wondered if he should let it go or not. After a moment of debating with himself that he probably should, he sagged his shoulders slightly and went to join Ino. "Let's," he said. "But this...now this is something. The Great Ino Yakamoto doesn't want to argue..." He tried a light smile that he was praying had at least some sort of a good effect. "But don't worry; I won't tell anyone."

"It's Yamanaka," Ino said, "and I don't always want to argue." It was just her default way of dealing with things. "Tell who you want, I don't care."

"Sorry," A.J. said, turning incredibly red at the mess up, and bit his lip as he looked over at her. "So...where should we start? Or have I just completely messed up and should probably really go because you're just sick of me and my big fat pile of screw up?"

She sighed. "I'm not sick of you," Ino said, "I'm just... on edge about being forgotten right now." That was probably the closest he was getting to an apology.

"Let's work on hair," she said, offering him her hairbrush, "and see how far we get."

"Okay," A.J. said, deciding to leave it for now and taking up the brush. He gave her a light grin. "Where do I start?"

"From the beginning," she said, turning her back to him, "First, brush my hair back and away from my face."

"Can do," A.J. said, his smile coming a little easier before settling in and working on doing as instructed. "It's so long!" he gushed. Yes. Gushed.

"It's a family tradition," Ino said, amused by the gushing, "and I like it long, besides. This is the simplest sort of braid," she said, "just one braid straight down the back."

"Family tradition to keep it long, huh?" A.J. quirked a slight grin. "I think you mentioned that last time, and I mentioned my whole thing that my family says mine's too long. And simple is good. So, uh, how do I do it, really?"

"Once it's all brushed back, you split it into three even, or as close to even, parts as you can get it." She told him. "And yeah, we did. If you ever see my Dad though, you'll get it. His hair is longer than mine."

"Oh, that's right," A.J. said, remembering up the conversation and the potential plan of a first impression if he ever did meet him with amusement as he carefully brushed out and divvied up the separate parts. He took his time, though, because Ino's hair was nice and long and if it wasn't for the whole spat there, he was thinking he could chalk this up as one of the best days ever. "Is it just you and your dad, then? Any siblings? And now what do I do that I have these three parts?"

"Just me, Mom and Dad. Mom wanted more, but it just never happened, you know?" Ino said, "Ninja families don't tend to have many kids. Most of the ones I was in school with were either single children, or only had one other sibling."

"Now, you take the right strand and cross it over the middle one..." Ino continued talking her way through the right process of doing a braid.

"Or maybe," A.J. said, because some people just never learned, "they had you and then decided one was enough. That's another joke, by the way, it's funny, so you laugh." He figured, though, that he had her hair; that hopefully put him in a position of safety. "And right strand crossed over middle. Check."

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